Desmond Tutu once described himself as a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum. I've found that observation to be remarkably true, sometimes unfortunately so.
Silence is hard for me to endure. I was the kid in school who answered the teacher's question when no one else would, even when I didn't know the answer. In a meeting, when 10 seconds go by, then 20, then 30, I find it nearly impossible not to interject.
About 10 years ago I was in a meeting with members of our leadership team, working through how to install a massive number of speakers on a project. Everyone had an idea, most of them variations on the same approach, and there was no consensus. Then came a 30-second pause. I was at the table because I was a successful PM, but I was also the most junior person in the room. I jumped in with a different take. To my surprise, most of the room agreed, and from that point on I had a much bigger role in the project.
After the meeting, one of the senior leaders pulled me aside, shook my hand, and thanked me. The handshake is what I remember most. He could have been offended that I overstepped, or annoyed that I didn't bring the idea to him privately first. Instead he encouraged me to keep filling those gaps.
Now I'm the senior person at the table, and the instinct that got me noticed is the one I have to manage. The silence in my meetings is often someone else's chance to speak. If I fill it, the most junior person in the room never gets the opening I got. When they do step in, even when it means stepping past someone more senior, my job is to do what he did.
Not every vacuum is mine to fill anymore.